left: Bro is the (shivering) figure beside the bench.
The temperature was so low that morning that glaze formed on car windows. From our apartment, we watched other travellers trying various methods of gettting rid of it and concluded that shovelling off the ice with a slipper was really a lot less effective than pouring hot water down the windscreen. =p
Incidentally, it was Mother's Day that day and amazingly, it was Dad who reminded us. Haha usually dates like these conveniently slip his mind. So we tried to fashion an impromptu surprise for Mum - carving out the words 'Happy Mother's Day' on the windscreen of our car and preparing a very stuffed sandwich for her breakfast. Unfortunately, it took many less than subtle gestures for her to see the message as she initially thought we merely wanted show her the layer of ice. Haha.
left: a nice, hearty breakfast without distractions like the papers or the TV.
right: to Mother, with love.
After breakfast, we took a short walk to the Church of the Good Shepherd, housed in a small brick cottage of sorts and then departed on our 4h drive to Queenstown - NZ's adventure capital.
Lindis Pass and Crossing led us past fields of cows and sheep and emerald blue rivers and glacial lakes. Many a time, we couldn't resist stopping for photo opportunities. Lake Pukaki was especially spectacular due to its vastness. What made the experience all the more pleasant was that there was never a need to jostle with fellow tourists for viewing spots - there were none. Just Us and Mother Nature. :)
The next town we passed was Twizel, where we paused for to answer nature's call =D and where we bought a much-too-sweet fruit and cider cake and a pretty good boysenberry smoothie to sustain us till the much awaited lunch time.
At the midpoint of our drive was Cromwell, a.k.a. the town of fruits! Vineyards provided ample opportunities for winetasting (almost one every few hundred metres).
left: Bro gnawing on the pride and joy of Cromwell
right: rows and rows of fruit trees in countless orchards - bare at this time though. The summer months of Dec - Jan is a good time to visit.
above: one of the many fruit stores selling fruit at low prices.
Next up, Kawarau Bridge, site of the world's first commercial bungee jump! It's possible to enter and from a viewing deck, you can catch all the action up close. A tour group of backpacking youths lined the viewing platform, screaming encouragement to their friends who were getting ready to take the plunge. Being the scaredy cat that I am, even watching those daredevils putting on their harness at the edge of the bridge threatened to reduce my legs to jelly. For the less faint-hearted, a jump will cost slightly over 100 NZD.
above: the Roaring Meg hydroelectric power station.
Before hitting Queenstown proper, we decided to follow the advice of the guidebook and make a slight detour to Arrowtown, which it describes as one of the prettiest towns in NZ. It was hard to disagree, especially with the colours of autumn standing out against the azure sky.
We had lunch on the go as we explored the small town, which had much more activity than the previous ones we'd so far visited. Chinese tourists for one came in coachloads! The locals too, were out but the pace of life was still quite leisurely. Oh, take careful note where you park as we were slapped with a 40 NZD fine for parking in the lot meant for coaches. Haha. And it was only the second day!
Macetown, just a few km from Arrowtown, was another place I wanted to visit but after circling Arrowtown several times in vain, we gave up the search and continued on to Queenstown, where there were actually enough cars on the road to constitute traffic!
Our accomodation, Pounamu Apartments looked pretty classy from the outside but when we opened the door, our mouths literally dropped! From the narrow doorway, we saw full length glass windows that enframed Lake Wakatipu with their white metal edges. The view was gorgeous! In the hallway, we spotted a computer with internet access, a printer, a washing machine and a dryer! The bedrooms came with ensuite bathrooms and plasma TVs and there was another one in the living room and an electric fireplace beside it! Whoa, it totally took my breath away! There was a distinct designer feel to the whole apartment which was barely a year old. And to think it cost only 240 NZD per night considering that a minimalist bunk in a backpackers in Europe would already set you back 40 SGD. Here, I've a website to recommend for last minute accomodation options: www.wotif.com. It knocks off a substantial amount off the original price.
Presenting, the best place I've ever stayed in:
At night, we went to the city centre to do a bit of sightseeing but didn't find anything particularly interesting. Most of the shops catered to the booking of adventure sports and were already closed anyway.
Another point I wanna add: the city centres NZ have a very different parking system to ours. Theirs do not require drivers to pay for parking spots but each group of parking lots have a specified duration for which drivers are allowed to park (5 min, 10 min etc), which gave us quite a headache as all of the longer duration parking lots were already taken. We asked this local how the parking was regulated and he said that there was a sensor under the lot which the parking attendant can use, with a device to track the amount of time the car has been there.
Dinner was a home made meal of some NZ staples like potatoes, button mushrooms and my favourite beef (it's delicious) in the comfort of the nice apartment. I revere this life! Haha.
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